A Mistake on My Behalf
by hijaubiru7
Summary: He was the Guide in the group and naturally the one everyone turned to whenever they needed advice or help. It was unlike him to make a mistake. Therefore on the rare moments when he did screw up, he would remember them clearly. Maybe that's the reason why the moment Marius' gamine friend appeared at the Café Musain one evening, he recognized her instantly.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! Hope all of you are alive and well! This is my second story, hope you guys enjoy it... Please read and review! Have a nice day (^_^)

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For as long as any of his friends known him, Combeferre had always been a calm, mature, level-headed young man. He was the Guide in the group, the voice of reason and naturally the one everyone turned to whenever they needed advice or help. It was unlike him to make a mistake, especially foolish, embarrassing ones. Even though he never boasted about it out loud, Combeferre was secretly proud of the fact. Therefore, on the rare occasional moments when he did screw up, he would remember every particular detail of it no matter how small it might be.

That was the reason why the moment Marius' gamine friend appeared at the Café Musain one evening, he recognized her instantly. Courfeyrac and Marius talked about her occasionally, but none of the rest had ever met her in person prior to her appearance at the Café. She was introduced to everyone present, and Combeferre managed to keep a straight face when it was his turn. "Eponine," she said simply, her voice was as hoarse as he remembered. "Combeferre," he returned politely, and they returned to their own business. It was unsurprising that she stuck by Marius' side the entire evening, watching as the young man joined the game of cards with a couple of the others.

Combeferre was in his usual corner, reading through a new book he stumbled upon about moths while Enjolras was seated next to him, working on his latest speech. Occasionally he stole a glance at her direction from the corner of his eyes, memories of the first time he had seen her a week ago began rushing through his mind.

 _flashback_

 _His head felt slightly heavier than usual, but he was still capable of walking without any assistance. His friends insisted that he joined them for a celebratory drink after they finished their exams for the term, but Combeferre had excused himself before the celebration can turn any wilder. Due to the tipsiness he felt, Combeferre found himself heading towards the apartment Courfeyrac shared with Marius, which was a lot closer compared to his own. All he wanted was to catch some sleep, after almost two days straight staying up studying for his paper._

 _It was exactly in front of their door that Combeferre remembered that both of them were out of town for the whole weekend. With a dejected sigh, he turned around and prepared to start the long march to his own place instead. "Monsieur Marius," a hoarse voice called out from the darkness, before a figure slowly stepped out from the shadows. "He's out of town for the weekend," Combeferre answered, his eyes squinting to get a closer look at person who had just appeared. From the limited amount of lighting, he could at least tell that the guest to be a young woman, with dark locks falling down to the middle of her back. Dressed in only a white chemise and a brown tattered skirt held up by an old, worn-out belt, she was most probably not acquaintance with Marius from the university._

 _Hearing his answer, she turned around to leave without saying anything, but he moved forward and called out to her. "Mademoiselle," he knew she must be desperately needed help for her to come looking for Marius at such hour. She halted midways, and glanced slowly over her shoulder, looking unsure whether he was addressing her. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Combeferre asked gently, taking another step closer._

 _The girl visibly bit her lower lip and stepped backwards, trying to maintain the distance between them. "No," she said harshly before turning to leave, but he grabbed her wrist in time to stop her. Upon the sudden contact, she shrieked and swatted his hand away roughly, catching him completely off guard. "What are you doing?" she hissed through gritted teeth, glaring daggers at him. Combeferre quickly backed away and held up both his hands apologetically, especially when she slightly crouched, as if she was ready to pounce at him at any given chance._

" _I'm so sorry, mademoiselle. I didn't mean to startle you," he said quickly but remained in his spot to avoid startling the girl once again. "Marius will be displeased if he finds out I let you leave just like that," at the mention of Marius, he saw the girl's eyes softened, and her stance slightly relaxed. "He will?" she echoed hesitantly, to which he nodded his head affirmatively. She visibly chewed on her lower lip and her eyes trailed downwards to the left side, clearly contemplating on his offer._

" _I need a place to stay for the night," she said after a few moments of silence, finally made up her mind. Combeferre nodded his head once again, so she cautiously stepped out from the shadows and gave him a full view of herself. Seeing her bare feet, he immediately felt a pang of pity for the girl._

 _end_ _of_ _flashback_

"Combeferre, you've been staring at her for the sixth time this evening," Enjolras finally said without looking up, knowing he had caught the sandy-haired man off guard. "Is there something I should know about?".

"None that I'm aware off," Combeferre said curtly, fixing his stare on the pages of his book instead.

"I'll take your word then. But if you need someone, you know where to find me," the golden-haired student lifted his face to meet his friend's eyes. Combeferre knew Enjolras did not fall for his lie a single bit, but decided not to pursue the matter further against his wish. Inwardly, he was grateful that Enjolras was more on the discreet side when it came to matters like this as opposed to Courfeyrac's approach.

He resumed reading without stealing any glances, now aware that nothing really escaped Enjolras' sharp eyesight. A loud thud coming from her direction however caught his attention once again, and Combeferre was horrified when he saw Gavroche had tackled Eponine to the floor, as his friends watched in amusement at the siblings' antics.

He got up from his seat, ready to drag the boy off his sister by force, but Eponine was quicker to handle the situation. She slipped a hand, grabbed a handful of Gavroches's hair, and sharply yanked it backwards. The boy's grip loosened, so Eponine simply kicked him off her with force that sent him tumbling to the side. Gavroche cackled as Eponine swore under her breath and smacked him upside down on his head. Combeferre unconsciously bit his lower lip in worry as he saw Eponine got up from the floor with Marius' help, all the while holding her left side.

 _flashback_

 _His breath hitched as soon as he caught sight of her newly exposed skin. She was disturbingly thin with her ribs protruding against her sallow skin, and her stomach was sunken in. She had a rather nasty bruise on her left ribs, which was why she had been holding her side the entire time they walked towards his home from Marius and Courfeyrac's residence. He examined them gently, with calm apologies every time she hissed in pain when he pressed on too hard. Relieved that nothing was broken, he proceeded to bandage her torso carefully before turning his attention to the numerous fresh bruises on the small of her back._

 _He collected her auburn-coloured hair in one hand and pushed it away from her back, letting it fall down the front of her left shoulder. Just like her ribs, her spine jutted out along her back. Fresh bruises decorated almost every inch of her back, some of them already turned blue. Aside from the bruises, she had some cuts in some places across her skin, and he could see there were quite a number of scars too._

 _Combeferre remembered the time he had seen Feuilly's body in the exact same condition of her body at that moment, and understood that it was poverty taking its toll on people. She was clearly exhausted; she had fallen asleep halfway through as he was applying balm to soothe her bruises. It was quite a feat on her behalf; he was half-impressed, half amused to see her sleeping while sitting up straight in his couch, her hands wrapped around her raised knees._

 _He took the moment to truly look at her, since she had glared at him a couple of times before when he stole a glance at her direction as they walked side-by-side. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyelids were sagged, which made her look constantly tired and a lot older than she really was. As she slept, her cracked lips twisted into a contented smile rather than her permanent scowl, and the whole expression of her face softened._

 _Her abrupt transformation intrigued him of just how much poverty and starvation can roughened someone up. Instead of the ferocious, almost feral woman that kind of scared him a bit just now, she now looked like who she really was; a young girl no older than seventeen. He inhaled deeply and put his hands on her shoulders, prayed hard that she would not wake up. As gently as he could, the young doctor pushed her down so that she was lying down before straightening out both her feet._

 _He then stood up to get a blanket to cover her with, but there was something about her that kept drew him in. Seeing how content she was just to have a roof over her head to sleep for the night, he could only imagine just what sort of life she had. To see her sleeping peacefully there, she looked fragile and Combeferre could not help but feel the need to protect her, to make her feel safe against the cold, harsh world._

 _Perhaps it was the wine he had with his friends, or it could be the sleepiness due to the time, but for some reason he just felt an odd feeling inside his chest and felt a knot in his stomach as he looked at her face once again. The next thing he knew, he was kneeling next to her, pressing his lips tenderly against hers. It was a chaste kiss, and he pulled himself back before he could go further, but her eyes had already snapped open. Confusion clearly written across her features, her eyebrows slightly scrunched as she frowned at him. He felt the strange knot in his stomach once again, and Combeferre boldly kissed her for the second time._

 _e_ _nd of_ _flashback_

"Combeferre?" Enjolras' voice snapped him from his train of thoughts. He turned to look at his friend, and realized that he was still standing up, and the rest of the Amis was looking at him with curious looks as well. From the quick observation, he noticed that Eponine and Gavroche both had left the room. "Are you sure you're okay?" Enjolras pressed further on, clearly worried of his friend's bizarre behaviour that night.

The doctor-in-training looked around and sighed heavily. "I think I'm more tired than I realized," he said as he began clearing up his things, trying to calm himself down. Enjolras nodded and helped to arrange some of the papers scattered on the table and handed it to him. "Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked with a tiny smirk on his face, much to Combeferre's slight annoyance. "Good evening to all of you," he bid them goodbye as he got everything inside his bag, and left the room.

As he walked out of the Café Musain, Combeferre took several deep breaths to calm down after clearly hurried his way away from the place. He had no idea why he would be that flushed just thinking about the girl, which embarrassed him in front of his friends. If there was anyone to blush and grow red in the face when thinking about someone of the opposite gender, it was always Jehan's role, and lately, Marius' as well.

Combeferre increased his pace as he wanted to get to his place as quickly as he could; so that he could drown himself in one of the many books he had and hopefully refrain himself from thinking about her. His collection of books and assignments did a decent job to keep his mind from thinking about her throughout the whole week before their second meeting at Café Musain.

"Leaving so soon, monsieur?" the familiar hoarse voice halted him in his tracks. "Eponine," he said and slowly turned around. She stood a few feet away from him, her face dimly lit by the moonlight.

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Finished the first chapter! Thank you so much for reading, everyone. Working on Chapter 2 now. Till then, have a nice day :)


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, everyone! I've finally done with the second chapter. I'm sorry for making you wait for too long.. To make it up to you, I'll try finish the third chapter as soon as possible. Have a nice day! (^_^)

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Combeferre froze in his spot even as she stepped closer towards him. "Are you leaving because of me, monsieur?" she had a smirk on her face, her arms crossed in front of her. There was no one in sight except for the two of them in the alleyway. The thought of being alone with her once again sent a shiver down his spine, as he recalled what happened between them that night. "You can't stop looking at me the entire time, can you?" Eponine twirled some of her long locks with her finger, a mischievous smile tugged on her lips.

"We need to talk," he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, trying to not be intimidated by the girl in front of him. It was true; he did intend to speak to her about what happened, but not in that circumstance with her trying to make a move on him.

"Monsieur Marius talked a lot about you. How smart and intelligent you are. And how he thinks he's lucky to have a great gentleman such as you as a friend," she ignored his words as she steadily advanced towards him, while Combeferre found himself backing away with each step that she took. Eponine seemed to notice this too, and became even bolder. She roughly pushed him against the wall behind him, and pressed herself against him, pinning him between her body and the wall.

Combeferre on the other hand was not prepared at all for her sudden action, and couldn't help but blushed furiously at their close proximity. "We both knew even the greatest of gentlemen have his own wild, secret side," her breath felt warm against his face, and he caught a whiff of liquor. Her hand was fingering his cravat while her other hand found its way in between his hair.

"Eponine, we need to seriously talk," he quickly grabbed both of her hands to stop her actions, and gently pushed her away slightly. "About what we did that night," he breathed out, his eyes trying to look into hers amidst the darkness of the night.

He heard her chuckled lowly but could not really see her face clearly as it was too dark. "About what we did that night?" she echoed his words in a mocking tone as she snatched her right arm out of his grip. Combeferre immediately let go of both her wrists, confident now that he finally got her attention away from advancing on him further on.

"You simply left in the morning and I haven't seen you around until tonight so we never got the chance to talk about it," he fixed his cravat which she had loosened a bit as a way to control his nervousness. He never really had any experience dealing with matters such as inter-gender relationship before; it was always Courfeyrac's forte.

"We slept together, yeah. What is there to talk about?" she said bluntly, her tone rose a bit. He felt his cheeks grew warm once again at her brazen words, momentarily at loss of words. "You did this 'we need to talk' shit too with other girls you bedded?" Eponine pressed further on, oblivious to the fact that he grew even redder with her question.

Combeferre stammered, trying to say something in defence but she caught him by surprise by pushing him against the wall once again, pressing her lips against his. Shock overpowered his senses, and he felt too numb to move even when she slipped one hand around his neck and her other hand grabbed a handful of his hair. He wanted to push her off him and to make her stop but she was proven to be a determined woman, only deepened the kiss and pulled him even closer to her as he tried to resist.

As she paused to take a breath, their eyes finally met underneath the moonlight. His heart skipped a beat as his eyes met her deep brown orbs, and he felt that strange tightening knot in his stomach once again. He watched as her eyelids fluttered and her eyes went lower to his lips, and before she leaned again, Combeferre dove and caught her lips with his. Eponine's eyes widened in surprise at his response, but she was quick to regain her composure and kissed him back.

The sound of footsteps however caused them to break apart from each other, and he immediately pushed her away from him. His hands quickly tried to fix his hair and straighten his cravat that she had attempted to loosen earlier, his eyes darting left to right in search of the person who had nearly walked on the two of them. The fear that someone would discover what he just did with the girl in front of him somehow made his heart beat twice as time faster than usual. Eponine however rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed at the interruption by the footsteps she knew really well.

"I'm afraid I have another appointment to attend to," she said a bit curtly. Combeferre only nodded wordlessly and watched as she fixed her slightly dishevelled hair with little success. Not that he knew what the appropriate things to say in such situation anyway.

"Tell me if you want to talk again," Eponine gave him one final wink and ran one hand along one side of his face. "Be careful," he blurted as she started to walk away from him, which earned a raised eyebrow from her. Combeferre realized that it was not really necessary; she practically lived in the streets anyway. But it was always his nature to look out for everyone around him, and he couldn't help but worry about the girl after he had seen the extent of her injuries that night a week ago.

As expected, she merely chuckled at his words in amusement, before she sped off into the darkness and left him standing alone without even looking back. Once he no longer heard her light footsteps echoed through the alley, Combeferre turned around and made his way home for the night, still quite flushed with what just happened.

* * *

"Am I interrupting something?" the icy cold voice teased her once she turned into the corner, to which Eponine had to roll her eyes in annoyance once again. Judging from his amused tone, Eponine was willing to bet that Montparnasse had witnessed her entire exchange with monsieur Marius' student friend right from the beginning. He had been there the entire time and interrupted just for the sake of messing around. "Stop messing with my business," she snapped and glared daggers at his direction.

Montparnasse snorted and crossed his arms across his body. "But he's kind of prudish, isn't he? Quite the contrary of your usual callers, 'Ponine," he tried to touch her face but she just swatted his hand away. "I finally got someone who is decent-looking and not bloody ancient, but you ruined it," she huffed in anger, but the level of her voice was still controlled. "I put up with your nonsense and helped you out with your silly hunts. Is it too much for you to respect what I do?" Montparnasse smirked at the irony of the words she used.

"Respect what you do?" he echoed her words in a mocking tone, rejoiced at another opportunity to make fun of her.

"You're not exactly respectable yourself," she tried to punch him in his shoulder, but he was quick to catch her wrist.

"We aren't much different from one another. Perhaps that's why we got along better than you and that petty student you followed around," he released her wrist and resumed crossing his arms in front of him.

"Don't talk about Monsieur Marius that way. He's ten times better than you," Eponine turned away from him and opened her palm to see what she had managed to pick from Combeferre's pocket just now. It was quite dark, but she guessed that the two coins are francs judging from its size.

Montparnasse too noticed this and patted her on the head. "But if you kept getting this amount of money from the students, maybe hanging around them wasn't that bad at all," he remarked but Eponine roughly pushed his hand away and scowled at his direction. Instead of being deterred by her irritation, Montparnasse noticed her slightly swollen lips and without hesitation broke out into laughter.

"Look, he almost bit your lips off!" he pointed out, and quickly ducked when she swung her fist directly at his face. "Lay off him already!" she growled which caused him to back away a few steps even though he did not quit laughing. However, Eponine suddenly felt her cheeks grew warm when she unconsciously touched her lips and remembered the gentleness of the man's kiss. To hide the blush she had, Eponine turned away from Montparnasse and started walking, refused to give him further opportunity to make fun of her.

Montparnasse followed her with traces of laughter remained. "Don't tell me you fancy him?" they were now walking side-by-side and he slowed down to match her stride. Eponine chose to ignore the remark, just fixed her stare right ahead. The dandy smirked at her non-verbal surrender, understood that it was a sign she refused to engage in any further conversation in regard of the matter.

"You've gone soft, 'Ponine. But I have the perfect remedy," he said, this time in a serious tone. Eponine perked up at this, before she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Fine. But no killing anyone. No reason putting the police on our trail more than necessary," she warned him, to which he only shrugged. Montparnasse took her by the wrist and picked up his pace and Eponine followed him without a word.

* * *

Combeferre lay in his bed, desperately tried to get some sleep. It was the beginning of spring, yet he felt unusually warm that night; he tossed and turned in his bed to find the most comfortable position to close his eyes and rest. As he looked at the darkness of the night outside his window, his thoughts unconsciously drifted to the girl he had just met in the alleyway.

The first time he brought her to his house and seen her asleep, Combeferre could not help but drawn by how delicate she seemed. The way she eyed him cautiously the entire time and the injuries she had was more than enough for him to know that the girl had been living far from an adequate living standard. He wanted to hold her and show her the gentleness that she deserved, instead of the cold harsh world that she lived in everyday.

He admitted that kissing her while she was asleep was not the best way to do it and had crossed the line, so Combeferre was deeply ashamed of what he did. He had apologised and was willing to be punished for taking advantage of her in that situation.

To his surprise however, the girl pulled him towards her and kissed him, gently at first. The innocent, sweet kisses turned passionate, and later they found themselves entangled between the sheets on his bed, their clothes thrown on the floor. She was gone by the time he woke up the next morning, but the warmth on the bed next to him was enough to convince him that it did happen.

The second time he saw her at the Café with Marius, she was quiet and timid; sticking to the latter's side the entire time as if she was his shadow. She laughed at his every joke, and glanced at him every few seconds with a faint blush over her features. It was not that hard to figure out that she was infatuated with him. The brief scuffle with Gavroche showed her fierceness momentarily, but she was back to smiling shyly the immediate moment Marius had helped her up.

At a glance, she seemed to be a lovesick teenage girl who refused to outgrow the fairy tales of princes and faraway castles, but it was hard to miss the sliver of hope she had in her eyes every time she laid her sight on Marius. Given the condition of the live she had, her ability to still have hope in something appealed to Combeferre. He wondered if she would have the same hope too for the revolution he and his friends had in hand if he explained it to her.

However, when she cornered him in the alleyway just now, Eponine was bold and confident. Combeferre had wanted to talk with her about the situation they found themselves in, but it caught him completely off guard to see that side of her. The way she hid in the shadows and sneaked up to him without him even noticing, there was not even a trace of fear she had the first time he saw her. Her fearlessness shone when she laughed off his concern and disappeared into the darkness alone to do God knows what, and he just wished that she did not turn up with the kind of injuries she had last time.

It intrigued him that he had seen several different sides of the girl in such a short amount of time. Her name, Eponine sounded straight off from sappy, romantic novels that seemed to fit her affection for Marius, yet her reluctance to provide any last name when Joly had enquired shown a hidden, secret side of her person. From all of her faces that he had seen and had yet to see, Combeferre wondered which of them was her true self. Before he drifted to sleep for the night, he made a mental note to see Marius to learn more about the girl that had sparked his interest.

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That's it for now, hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you so much for your time and please do stay tuned for the next chapter! See you soon!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi everyone! It had been a long time since I updated, so I apologise deeply for that. Here's the third chapter, please enjoy! Oh, and Have a nice day (^_^)

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"How's class, Combeferre?" Courfeyrac greeted as Combeferre walked past their table and put down his books on his usual table at the corner of the room. "As usual. We covered a new topic today so Joly has a new bunch of reasons to fear for his and our lives now," The bespectacled man wiped away the sweat from his brows with his handkerchief and walked towards the occupied table. Courfeyrac and Bahorel groaned at the news, while Marius and Feuilly just shook their heads and went back to their game of cards. Grantaire sat at the other end of the table, with a bottle already in hand.

"It's not yet dark and you're already drinking, Grantaire?" Combeferre grabbed the bottle out of Grantaire's hand; much to the latter's annoyance. "Never stopped him before," Feuilly smirked at the futile attempt made by Grantaire to retrieve the bottle. The resident drunkard simply held his hand out as closest as possible to the bottle that Combeferre had placed in the middle of the table, too lazy to get out of his chair.

"I used to think that no one can match Grantaire when it comes to drinking," Marius said suddenly, a bright smile on his face. "But I might need to think back about it after I've seen how well Eponine can handle her liquor," he let out a light-hearted chuckle, but the mention of Eponine's name immediately got Combeferre's interest.

He remembered wanting to talk to Marius about her, but decided against it the next morning since he and Marius were not really close. For him to suddenly divulge about Eponine's private matters from Marius, it was bound to be too awkward for both of them. Besides only God knows how his friends would react should any of them found out how he and Eponine had been acquainted prior to her introduction by Marius. Courfeyrac would never let him hear the end of it of course.

"Is she coming today?" Combeferre asked, trying to sound as casual as he could. Courfeyrac raised an eyebrow at the question but said nothing.

"There's no telling when it comes to Eponine. She comes and goes as she pleases," Marius shrugged as his eyes were trained on his cards. Silently, Combeferre agreed with him although he was somewhat disappointed with the answer. It seemed that the girl was more complex than he thought.

"How did you meet her?" he pressed on, adamantly avoiding Courfeyrac's questioning stare. "Just curious," he added hastily when Bahorel and Feuilly started to mimic Courfeyrac's action. "We used to be neighbours, before I moved in with Courfeyrac. But she's hardly home anyway. In fact we first met in the streets, and then found out we lived in the same building," Marius answered, clueless as to why the others were locked in a questioning stare at Combeferre's direction. "Why are you asking?" he finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind at the moment (except Grantaire who finally managed to grab his bottle back).

"Like I said. Out of curiosity," he shrugged his shoulders and leaned back in his chair with closed eyes to pretend a nap. "Is there something going on between you and her, Combeferre?" Courfeyrac put down his card on the table and leaned in closer towards his friend, a plan of mischief suddenly formed inside his mind.

However, Combeferre was spared the need to save himself from the situation when Enjolras arrived with Jehan, both of them had a heavy stack of printed brochures in their arms. He immediately got up from the chair to give them a hand, along with Feuilly. Just a few moments later Joly and Bossuet arrived, the latter with a handkerchief pressed to his bloodied nose, so their meeting for the day commenced.

* * *

Eponine looked at the pile of letters on her father's table and sighed heavily. She did not need to be told what to do with the letters anymore. However, this was one of the days that she wished nothing more than to stay at home curled up with a blanket. Her body was sore all over, and she had a nasty bruise on the right side of her face but nothing was hurt more than her pride at the moment.

The heist with her father and the rest of the Patron-Minette did not go so well the night before as a group of policemen suddenly appeared at the scene. She alerted the rest of the gang as quickly as she could and within seconds all of them scattered to make their escape. As usual, Eponine made her way into the alleys where she was confident that she could throw the police off her trail easily in between the buildings. She had let her guard down, so when one of the police caught up to her and swung his baton at her face, Eponine was too slow to dodge.

The blunt force threw her to the ground where she landed ungraciously on her left arm, before he kicked her hard in the guts. Before she could get up, he gave her another kick in her chest and grabbed her hard by her shoulders to force her on her feet. Eponine struggled hard against his iron-like grip despite the searing pain in her head and stomach but failed to break free. She was only saved when Montparnasse suddenly appeared out of the shadows and punched the man hard in his face. The man's grip on her loosened, so she quickly broke herself free from him. She took the opportunity to kick him hard in between his legs and punched his face for good measure, before Montparnasse grabbed her wrist and pulled her along to make their escape together.

Although Montparnasse said nothing as he dropped her off at her home, the smirk he had on his handsome face was more than enough to make her feel embarrassed of what happened. After all the years she spent in the streets, Eponine had always been proud of her ability to take care of herself and standing on her own two feet. Therefore on the occasional moments when she found herself to be a damsel in distress, it truly shattered her pride.

"You're still lazin' around here? Get movin'," her train of thoughts were interrupted by her father's voice and a hard kick on her back. She shot up into a sitting position, but regretted it almost immediately when another wave of sharp pain shot from her stomach.

"Can't I rest for today, Papa? I don't feel too good," she grumbled as one hand rubbed the spot where Thernadier had kicked her.

"We failed last night because of you. And you dare asking for a rest today?" her father picked up the letter and threw them roughly in her face. Eponine bit her tongue to hold herself from saying anything that could further agitate him and picked up the letters without any protest.

"It wasn't my fault that the cop decided to jump on us. I warned you like I should have," she said through gritted teeth. "I even got hurt," Eponine added in a smaller voice but quickly averted her gaze when Thenardier snapped his head into her direction.

"You got hurt for being clumsy. Now stop whinin' and get the hell out from here before I show you what hurt really feels like," his voice was dangerously low, and Eponine knew from experience that he meant every word. With a heavy heart, she got up, picked up the letters from the table and disappeared through the door of their home without saying any word.

Her entire day's effort of bringing the letters and begging for money earned her nothing at all, as the recipients of the letters had refused to give her anything. It was getting dark by the time she arrived in front of her residence building, but Eponine knew better than to go home empty-handed. She did not need to make a mistake twice to learn her lesson. So she turned around from Gorbeau Tenement and slumped down against the wall in an alley a couple of blocks away, both in exhaustion and exasperation. It seemed like she needed to spend the night either by stealing or by sleeping with a couple of men to make some money for her father. With that thought in mind, Eponine closed her eyes and exhaled harshly, dreaded both the options.

"Eponine," she perked up at the sound of her name and opened her eyes quickly when she realized whose voice was it. It had been almost two weeks since their last midnight encounter outside of the Café Musain but she still remembered the gentle and calming tone of his voice. "Monsieur," she breathed out, and stood up straight to be face to face with Combeferre. He had a kind smile on his face, but it immediately faltered as soon as his eyes landed on the bruise on her face. "Eponine," he said again, a lot gentler this time as his hand slowly reached out for her face to get a closer look.

"It's nothing," she quickly stepped away from him before he could touch her. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she fixed her hair to cover the bruise better. He said nothing but only held his stare at her face, the expression on his face clearly shown that he was unsatisfied that he could not do anything about the bruise."Monsieur? Why you're here?" Eponine waved her hand in front of his face to divert his attention away from her bruise.

"I…happened to pass by," he answered quickly, but Eponine could tell right away that it was not entirely the truth. There was no reason for someone like him to be in that part of Paris at such a late hour. "What happened to your face, Eponine?" he tried to touch her face once again, but this time she roughly swatted his hand away. "Stop it!" she snapped in annoyance and shot a deadly glare at his direction.

"It seems like I've crossed the line. I am so sorry," he apologised immediately and backed away from her to make a reasonable distance between the two of them.

"It's nothing," she nodded her head and looked away from him. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that he was still fixated on the right side of her face. Inwardly, she had to resist from rolling her eyes at his apparent stubbornness.

"Look, if it makes you happy I'll let you fix the bruise. Just stop looking at me like a creep," she finally said and turned to look at him in the eyes. Combeferre on the other hand was slightly embarrassed by her words, judged from the tint of blush that had crept into his face. "I apologise for making you feel uncomfortable," he cleared his throat and finally looked away from her face.

"Do what you want. But don't expect me to talk or anything, because I'm not in the mood," Eponine crossed her arms and sighed in defeat. "Good enough for me," he smiled at her words as a promise, as well as to hide the fact that he was quite surprised by the sudden change in her behaviour.

"I left my medical supplies back at my place. Will that be okay for you?" he asked her carefully, but Eponine only shrugged.

With all the times she had spent in the arms of different men, Eponine could hardly call herself prude. She had lost innocence a long time ago, so long that she had actually forgotten how it even happened. Even if she was not sleeping around in exchange for money, she had absolutely nothing against having occasional trysts with Montparnasse whenever the two of them felt like it. Eponine knew it was far different from the kind of lives most people led, but it was the world she knew and grew up in.

Therefore, it should not be a big deal for her to be sitting that close to him as he was tending to the injuries she had. However, she somehow felt slightly warmer and her heart beat a little bit faster than usual. Both she and Combeferre were seated on the very couch where it all started a few weeks back, so close to one another that Eponine could literally felt his breath as he concentrated on bandaging her sprained wrist.

"Maybe we should stop here," she said suddenly as he wrapped the bandage around her wrist one final time, but he showed no response to her words. When he gently took her arm in his hands to check on the bandages, Eponine felt her heart literally skipped a beat.

"Are you hurt somewhere else?" he immediately changed the topic as he was done with her wrist and showed no signs that he even heard her. She bit the inside of her cheeks in frustration, but she knew better than to deal with it like she normally would. He was still a friend of Marius, and the last thing Eponine would need was anything that would make her look bad in front of the Pontmercy.

"If you don't mind, can you show me your ribs please? I want to make sure they are properly healed from last time," he caught her eyes with a smile, and her heart skipped another beat.

It was barely seconds when she broke off their eye contact first and exhaled harshly. "You're not going to like it," she said as she pulled up her shirt to just below her chest. Combeferre raised an eyebrow in confusion at her words, but as soon as he looked at her torso, he did not need further explanation. While her bruised ribs had healed well, the girl had a new large bruise that had turned blue on her abdomen. He muttered under his breath which she guessed to be a swear word, and carefully touched the area around the bruise. The touch of his fingers felt delicate against her flesh, as if he was afraid that she was going to fall apart any seconds.

Eponine finally had it enough and swiftly pushed away his hand. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" he apologised as he looked up in her eyes, but Eponine merely shook her head.

"Let's stop. I got no money to pay you anyway," she finally lowered her shirt, but he quickly stopped her.

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm not doing this for money," Combeferre tried to convince her as he carefully guided her hand to lift back her shirt. Eponine blinked in confusion upon hearing his words. It was impossible for anyone to do something without expecting anything in return, she thought.

"Do you have another form of payment in mind instead, monsieur?" she leaned closer to him with her hand still in his, and tugged on his cravat with her free hand. Her action caught him completely off guard, as he immediately let go of her hand and stood up.

"No. I'm not doing this for any payment at all," Combeferre begun to clear the table and collected his medical equipments one by one, looking away from her the entire time.

"Well, I don't need your charity. I will pay for it, in one way or another," she only watched as he kept everything inside a brown bag and crossed her arms. "I owe you nothing anymore from last time, right?" she asked before he could open up his mouth to protest.

Combeferre scrunched his eyebrows in confusion at the question. What did she meant by that? "Not that I'm aware of," he said carefully, only to be met with her firm nod.

Despite her usual habit of staying out of other people's business, Eponine could not help but feel intrigued about the man in front of her, and wanted to know more about him. How he persisted on having her wounds treated without anything in return, his extremely polite manner of speech and constant apologising over the smallest things, his obvious chasteness despite the fact that they clearly had spent a night together, everything about him appealed her. Of course no one else could ever replace Monsieur Marius in her eyes, but this man was a close second.

"Why are you doing this, if it was not for money?" she asked after a while and broke the silence that fell between the two of them. Her question surprised him, but Combeferre was visibly relieved to see that she had calmed down a little bit.

"I strongly believe that money is not the only thing that matters in life. Everyone has their own values; something that defines their happiness and their worth as a person. For me personally, just to be able to help a fellow human being in need, and making a difference in someone's life, no matter how small gives me much joy and contentment,".

"You must be filthy rich to be able to say that,".

"I must apologise once again, Eponine. I did not mean to come across as rude and obnoxious,".

"That's bullshit anyway. You got no money, you got nothing,".

"I totally get where you are getting at in the matter, and I respect that. However, I still stand by what I said. Everyone, including you Eponine has something that can give them much happiness, and it is not necessarily money alone," he was surprised when she suddenly roared in laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" he tried hard to keep himself from stammering.

"You apologise over the simplest things monsieur!" Eponine pointed out, her laughter gradually subsided. "You're trying so hard not to hurt my feelings. Don't worry. It is going to take a lot more than that to truly hurt me,".

"And you get amused over the simplest things,".

"I guess now I should apologise for laughing at you, monsieur?" she smirked and called out to him in a half-mocking tone, to which he responded with a chuckle on his own.

"I am glad to be your source of amusement this evening," he reclaimed his seat on the couch now that there were no signs that she would make another advance towards him. "As much as I admire your resilience, Eponine I would rather have you safe and sound,".

The smirk on her face was wiped out as she lifted her face to look at him in the eyes. There was a warm, fuzzy sensation when she heard the words and it felt extremely good. "That is…nice to hear, monsieur. Thank you," her voice suddenly grew quieter and her head hung low. "You're a very good man. It's a pity I can't return the favour. You see, I'm far from what you will even call decent,".

"You seem rather fond of favours,".

"In my world, everything comes with a price,".

"Even a simple act of kindness?" .

"Especially that, monsieur," Eponine held up her index finger to emphasize her point.

"If you really insist on returning the favour, will you accompany me for the rest of the evening then?".

Eponine raised an eyebrow in wonder at his words. It was the first time anyone had requested for her company in such a polite manner. "Are you sure? I should warn you again I'm not up to be playing some charming companion right now,".

"I understand. If you can just accompany me to a party at a friend's place later, I will not ask for anything more," Eponine blinked twice and wondered whether she had heard wrong.

"Me and you? A party?" she asked him for assurance, just in case he had said the wrong thing.

"This evening. Yes," he flashed that kind smile of his again and Eponine felt as if there were butterflies in her stomach. Still, she hesitated for a while and bit her lower lip as she contemplated the offer.

"Will I get to eat?".

"Of course,".

"I just go with you without having to do all the socializing and whatever it is you folks do?".

"You have my word,".

"It's a deal then," she broke into a smirk and held out her hand for a handshake. Although a bit bewildered by her unexpected gesture, Combeferre shook her hand firmly.

* * *

Thank you for reading. Please leave a review, and have a super-duper day! :)


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